1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing device of the type including a heat roller, a fixing roller, an endless belt passed over the heat roller and fixing roller, a press roller pressed against the fixing roller and one or more contact members contacting the belt and fixing a toner image carried on a recording medium by passing the recording medium between the belt and the press roller, and an image forming apparatus including the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
A fixing device of the type described is usually included in a copier, printer, facsimile apparatus or similar electrophotographic image forming apparatus or a multifunction apparatus having two or more of a copier function, a printer function and a facsimile function, as taught in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-334997. An endless belt included in the fixing device has a thermal capacity small enough to heat the belt in a short period of time. This reduces the warm-up time of the fixing device. However, contact members contacting the belt take heat from the belt and are therefore apt to obstruct the heating of the belt, i.e., the warm-up of the fixing device.
Technologies relating to the present invention are also disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 9-218601, 10-221982 and 2000-305393.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fixing device capable of effectively reducing the amount of heat that an endless belt loses due to contact members and thereby reducing the warm-up time more than conventional fixing devices, and an image forming apparatus including the same.
A fixing device of the present invention includes a heat roller, a fixing roller, an endless belt passed over the heat roller and fixing roller and driven to turn, a press roller pressed against the fixing roller with the intermediary of the endless belt. The recording medium is passed between the belt and the press roller. The device additionally includes at least one contact member contacting the belt. Part of the at least one contact member contacting the belt is formed of at least one of heat-resistant felt and heat-resistant resin. The at least one contact member may contact the surface of part of the belt contacting the heat roller.
An image forming apparatus including the above-described fixing device is also disclosed.